Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

MOSCOW, January 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is prepared to hold a next Russia-EU summit in a narrower format, if Brussels is uninterested in meetings between ministers from concrete industries and European commissioners in charge of specific issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference devoted to the results of 2013 here on Tuesday.

“The European Union proposed to hold detailed talks over visa issues at a next summit. In this regard, meetings of ministers from concrete industries and European commissioners in charge of specific issues were left beyond traditional format of the summit,” he said.

“If our partners find this part of summit excessive, we are prepared to accept it,” he said.

Lavrov noted that talks on many topical issues in Russia-EU relations, including development of integration unions in Eastern Europe, will be affected.